The nude female body has been depicted in art countless times. But where is all the pubic hair?
The nude female body has been depicted in art countless times. But where is all the pubic hair?
From the influence of the devil to overzealous restorers, there are numerous strange reasons and theories behind the conspicuous lack of pubic hair on women depicted in Western art.
Truth is sculpting body hair was taking too much time and production couldn't keep up with demand, so management decided to cut costs and keep it smooth.
I feel like it might've been painted on for greek-style marble statues? Still unusual for paintings
Men were depicted with pubes, though. See the article, too.
A female friend of mine actually did her bachelor's thesis on body hair removal across certain cultures and time periods. Fun discussions were had.
Short version, body hair removal on both women and men has been around for a very long time and is subject to changes. Depictions of nude bodies follow somewhat different rules, though. If they are at all permissible, that is.
One medieval writer even went as far as to claim that if you take the hairs of a menstruating woman and bury them in the garden, a snake will grow from the earth. (If any of our dear readers try this at home, please write in to the ABC with your results).
It's OZ, the chances of there not being a snake in your garden are pretty low.
I only wish I could give it multiple up votes! This made me laugh so hard
Art doesn't grow pubes, jeez 🙄
Poor Arthur, forever trapped in prepubescence.
I took it, sorry. I'll put it back
Believe it or not there is actually no shortage of art containing women's pubic hair if you just google it
But definitely don't Google Demi Moore bush.
One thing the article doesn't consider is age. What if the ancient artists were intending their subjects to be younger girls than the actual models?
"Youth" in women being idealised then as now, presumably. I don't imagine they had the same issues with girls being under age as we do.
That question work for both gender and the answer is, it depens on which artistic mouvment. "La liberté guidant le peuple" is famous the have a bit of armpit hair and "l'origine du monde" while been painting with the clear purpose to choc the public is much hairy.
I never thought restoration have got rid of the hair. If nudity chock you, would you not rather dress people than shaving them? Anyway, restoration even get rid of whole people just because their were not white so...
I feel like I've seen plenty of bush in the galleries. Will have to take a closer look in the future
Nooo officer, its really not like that, I was just inspecting for pubes!
🎼Tell me what happened...🎶